Right Thinking from the Left Coast

Tag: Brian Ross

You know, there’s a lot of shit journalism out there and a small amount of good stuff. Would it be much of an effort to recognized the good stuff instead of the disgusting factually-challenged panic-mongering bullshit?

Congratulations to Brian Ross, America’s Wrongest Reporter, for winning a coveted Edward R. Murrow Award honoring his coverage of the Toyota unintended acceleration story. The award, oddly, is for “Video Continuing Coverage” rather than “Fostering Global Panic Based on Bullshit Story.” Still, a Murrow is a Murrow, right? Let’s go to tape.

Ross, you will recall, was one of the driving forces behind the Runaway Toyota Panic of ’10, which was later determined by NASA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to have been largely the result of idiots stepping on the accelerator when they intended to step on the brake, and of other idiots talking about it on TV. Ross was one of those idiots. For some reason, ABC News submitted four of Ross’ Toyota reports to the Radio Television Digital News Association for award consideration.

Ross’s coverage was disgusting. In addition to staging sudden acceleration footage, he presented an associate of trial lawyers as some kind of expert in auto safety and neglected to mention that one horrific accident involved a manual throttle. Moreover, we now know, thanks to NHTSA, that the entire thing was garbage. It’s like presenting an award to CNN for the coverage of the balloon boy.

But … to the media what matter is creating a sensation, not accurately reporting.